Mindful Monday: 5 Inspiring Songs & Quotes To Get You Through The Week

Life got you down? Need some daily doses of inspiration or just a musical pick-me-up? Life can be great with the right perspective; you just have to look underneath the surface and find motivation in small things.

To help, we’ve got daily affirmations from major musical artists and writers for you to remember, repeat, and recycle into the world.

Monday, April 11th:[lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Katrina & The Waves[/lastfm]-“Walking On Sunshine”

Photo by Getty Images

This one is obvious and maybe sort of cheesy, but this weekend I saw a group of kids singing this “Walking On Sunshine” at a museum. I was immediately brought back to the halcyon days of my youth when the simple pleasures of the world, like dancing with my hairbrush and looking in the mirror, were the kinds of things that made me immensely happy.

In this quote from Sam Levonson, he says: “One of the virtues of being very young is that you don’t let the facts get in the way of your imagination.” Maybe the sunshine isn’t real, maybe the microphone is made out of plastic, but if you use your imagination enough, you can make that feeling of purity project out of you–and subsequently make the world a better place.

In a world where we are taught that compromise or even complete passiveness is the way to go, Jon Bon Jovi reminds us that we have to stick up for ourselves–no matter what.

Why? Because “It’s my life and it’s now or never.” Even if we make others mad with our decisions, at least we are making decisions that represent ourselves and who we truly are. In the end, it’s the people that love us for that who are the ones that really care about us. Stay strong and don’t lose your identity. You are beautiful just the way you are.

As Harold Thurman Whitman says, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Sometimes we get lost in ourselves, in our needs and desires. We forget to look around us at all the people in need. Scientific studies have proven that the path to true happiness is compassion based in small acts of kindness. These acts of kindness get us through the day and they can be as small as feeding someone else’s parking meter or letting someone with fewer items than you go ahead of you in the grocery line.

Compassion is a win-win situation; even a little bit of it can mean a lot of the overall psychological health of you and whomever you are looking on with a positive perspective.

As the Dalai Lama says, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

As we become adults, sometimes we tend to stifle our self-expression and creativity. Remember when you could just put your hands in a couple pots of primary paint and just wipe them ecstatically on some parchment paper? Do you remember the feeling of happiness it created to see the product of your own hands?

If you really want to find happiness, try doing something artistic, even colorful. Paint a wall in your house with a tiny mural. Have the whole family join in and add their special touches. Whenever you are down, just go and let your true colors shine through.

Not only will you let you true colors shine through, but you will get to see the inner working of your friends and family. And that is a beautiful thing.

Oscar Wilde says it best, “Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.”

It doesn’t matter whether you are man, woman, or child: You will deal with naysayers who bully you and gossip about your looks, your intelligence, your worth, and most poignantly, your core identity. Of course it hurts, but remember that you can’t be perfect, no one is perfect and the people that are most vocal about your faults are the ones that are probably the most insecure.

Like I told my friend who was being bullied and wanted to talk trash on the woman, “Grown women who bully like teenage mean girls just need a time machine to go back and hug their 16-year-old selves.” Don’t let someone else’s insecurity affect your own sense of security.

We think of Buddha as being against attachment to beauty, and he was, but in the way that beauty was seen as something superficial. Above all you should have faith in yourself as a worthwhile human being: “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”

What are some of your favorite inspirational quotes and sayings? Let us know in the comments!